Introducing CinnamonA Linux Desktop featuring a traditional layout (Gnome 2),built from modern technology (Gnome Shell) and introducing brand new innovative featuresIt is in ALPHA at the moment,most features haven't arrived yet,but it is available for testing

So, uhm, what does this mean for Mate? This Cinnamon DE seems to have pretty much the same goal as Mate, to get a Gnome-based DE that works like Gnome 2 instead of Gnome 3. Will Mate be abandoned now that Clem himself has moved on to Cinnamon?

I am not a Mint user, I am on Arch, but Mint would be my second choice and I always check on Mint to get some great theme ideas. I am very excited about Cinnamon. If this makes it to my desktop I might want to switch back to Gnome from XFCE. I will donate to your distribution just for this single thing. Finally some sanity into Gnome3. Thank you and please keep up the good work. Now where is the donate button?

clem wrote:MATE is different, it feels different and it provides different features. Both desktops will appeal to different categories of users and so we're likely to support both.

I have been using Trisquel (http://www.trisquel.info) on another machine and I would love for them to adapt MATE as well considering that their default Gnome 2 look is one of the best looking around. I'm currently running their 4.1 version (LTS) and would want to migrate from one LTS to the next in the future with the same look.

I've installed Cinnamon on my live USB stick. Basically I like it, so I say keep going. It seems to be a nice improvement to Gnome Shell. I would like to see applets work and more flexibility to scale the panel and to be able to place the applets where we want them.

Last edited by Joe_Linux on Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

zerozero: The search entry in the overview will disappear eventually and so will the search engines. Engines will then be added to the menu itself. The overview will be reserved for advanced features and act as a complement to the desktop.

I tried to install it but when I logged into the cinnamon session, there was just the desktop with icons, there were no panels or anything else. This also happened when logging into the gnome session. MATE worked, though. I'm reinstalling into VBox, so I'll see if it works then. Should I install it before or after installing updates?

I know there are already too many desktop environments in the wild now, but why was Cinnamon created? I'm curious if the time and resources would be better spent into refining the Gnome Shell and its extensions in addition to MATE.

I know the strength of open source is that anyone can create anything and put it into the wild. The big weakness is that there are clashes of egos and if these people got together and tried to refine the things they use instead of forking, we would have higher quality products instead of a handful of clones that either die out quickly due to lack of interest or are watered down.

I would love to see MATE become more refined. If you want to kill it, then too bad. Maybe you should have thought of that before getting people excited about it with the previous release. I know you guys have a decent sized team, but you will eventually be supporting Gnome Shell, Gnome Shell MGSE, Cinnamon, and MATE on a single release. This doesn't include your KDE, LXDE, and two variants of Gnome and XFCE on Debian.

I think that MATE and Cinnamon will be shipped in Mint 13 (or maybe 14), as Cinnamon I believe is to replace MGSE with a more integrated desktop environment. So, it's almost an evolution of the extensions, so to speak. If you look at the git page, they are basically turning the extensions into defaults which are better integrated.

cwwgateway wrote:I think that MATE and Cinnamon will be shipped in Mint 13 (or maybe 14), as Cinnamon I believe is to replace MGSE with a more integrated desktop environment. So, it's almost an evolution of the extensions, so to speak. If you look at the git page, they are basically turning the extensions into defaults which are better integrated.

That's how I see it. MATE is for people who want to stick with Gnome 2, while Cinnamon is done somewhat in the style of Gnome 2, but with Gnome Shell components. I think they both have the potential to be very good. I wonder if Unity will ever be improved enough for me to see something positive in it. Right now, Unity seems outclassed by all these Mint variations. It's like Mozart taking on Salieri and beating the poison of "Unity".